This is the story of Tiblet.
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Dear Friends, I wanted to share a story with you about my friend and a young Ethiopian girl. Tiblet is 14 years old. I met her and her mother at Black Lion Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She has Tuberculosis. Black Lion is the largest referral hospital in Ethiopia. You see, I was in Addis Ababa for a couple of weeks doing some things and one afternoon I got a phone call from a friend of mine, his name is Emanuel. Emanuel is working triage in the Emergency Department of this large 800+ bed hospital. Only half of the hospital can be seen in the photo. 
A woman, Tiblet’s mother, had been talking to Emanuel about her child and the problems she is having. She told of a chronic cough her daughter had been struggling with for seven years. She told how her husband is near the Sudan border trying to find work but he has not sent any money home yet. Tiblet’s mother’s name is Hagare. Emanuel called me and told me of the many struggles this woman was having because he has Jesus in his heart and cares about people he does not even know. Sometimes he spends his own money to help the poorest of the poor patients that come through the very busy ER. Patients come from all over the country so Emanuel does what he can to make the patients stay the shortest possible to keep the family’s lodging and food expenses to a minimum while they are in Addis Ababa.
Emanuel did not have enough money at the time to help this family so he called me to see if I could do something. I was able to because of donations to Here4Them. People send donations to Here4Them for medical care so I immediately thought of using money from that fund to provide for this needy family while they were away from home in a city of over four million inhabitants, a place they do not know. There was a young sister with Tiblet and her mother. She looked to be about two years old but I never did ask what her age was. |
Tiblet had recently been referred to Black Lion Hospital from her home in the west of Ethiopia more than 350 miles away. They have no family in Addis Ababa to help them and they had very little money. After seeing a doctor Tiblet was given an appointment at the Respiratory Department to be evaluated. It was now Tuesday and the appointment was not till Friday. Hagare went to Emanuel to ask for help. Hagare told Emanuel that she did not have money for a hotel and food for the few days that she must wait. Inpatient care at the hospital is free to the poor but what about the expenses while they are waiting for the appointment? So that is when Emanuel called me.
I went to the hospital later that day and Emanuel and I talked with Hagare about her little family’s needs. While standing outside of the busy ER we bowed our heads and prayed. We prayed for a blessing from God and for the needs of Tiblet to be provided for and for healing. Hagare mentioned that Tiblet was in the sixth grate but had to quit school in order to come to Addis Ababa for this hospital visit which was expected to be a long one. It was expected that too much school would be missed for her to makeup when she returns home.. After talking we all decided that 500 birr, which is the Ethiopian currency, would be enough money for Hagare to find an inexpensive hotel and food till Friday. 500 birr is $25 USD. But by Thursday the 25 dollars was almost gone so Hagare found Emanuel working in ER and told him of the situation. So later that day I went to the hospital again and provided Hagare another $25. Each time she received the money she was very, very grateful. Every time I saw Hagare I could see the heartache in the face of this mother. Adding to her anxiety was the fact that she had never been to Addis Ababa which is so very different from her small home village. She so disparately wanted her daughter to get treatment and to be well. It was troubling to see that heartache in this mother’s face. After Tiblet’s appointment on Friday, Hagare again talked with Emanuel and told him that Tiblet was admitted to the hospital because it was confirmed that she has TB. The first part of the following week Hagare updated Emanuel with another need. Tiblet had be told to get an echocardiogram which could not be done at this hospital. Hagare had no money for the echocardiogram, and the cost would be $20 for this test. So someone’s donation to Here4Them paid for this test. The echocardiogram came back OK. |
During Tiblet’s hospitalization her mother and sister stayed at the hospital each night. In Ethiopia this is the common practice that a family member always stays with the patient.
I went to visit Tiblet after she had been in the hospital for about 10 days because I was leaving Addis Ababa soon. I went to the Respiratory Patient Ward up on the eighth floor of this huge hospital. The ward had about 12 patients. It was clean and well lighted. Tiblet was on oxygen and was wearing a mask so to not be spreading this contagious disease of TB. The update from Hagare about Tiblet’s condition was good news! Tiblet was already improving! We prayed there in the ward with Tiblet and again asked, while knowing, that Jesus would bless and work to heal this girl. Then about 10 days later I received another phone call from Emanuel and it was about Tiblet again. She was being discharged from the hospital and was going home after about three weeks in the hospital. Hagare was so happy for the improvement in Tiblet but they did not have the money for the two bus tickets to return home, which were $12.50 each. It was now late on a Friday afternoon and too late in the day to send money to Emanuel for him to give it to Hagare that day. So Emanuel went to his bank and withdrew 500 of the 600 birr that he had in his account and gave it to Hagare. Emanuel said that he would try to borrow money from a friend if he needed anything during the weekend. He just asked that I would reimburse him on the following Monday. I am very proud of Emanuel! He puts his money where his heart and mouth is. Emanuel earned his B.S. degree in nursing outside of Ethiopia and upon returning to Ethiopia he learned that the government requires him to serve at a government hospital, without pay, for six months before they will issue him a license to work in Ethiopia. A couple month before when he told me about this delay in getting his license I was irritated. I thought that this was an unreasonable requirement. But it turns out to be a very good requirement as far as the people that have been helped by Emanuel is concerned. I need the eyes of Jesus. Always. Not just when I think I do. As you may know, the name Emanuel means, God with us. Because of Jesus, Mark |
Tiblet and Emanuel